One of the other two leads to the frost jötnar and the third to Mankind. In Grímnismál stanza 31, Hel is listed as existing beneath one of the three roots of the world tree Yggdrasil. The other two are Fjalar in Jotunheim and Gullinkambi in Valhalla. The Völva states that a crowing "sooty-red cock from the halls of Hel" is one of three cocks that will signal one of the beginning events of Ragnarök. In reference to Hel, in the poem Völuspá, a völva states that Hel will play an important role in Ragnarök. The compound is a compound of * haljō (discussed above) and * wītjan (reconstructed from forms such as Old English witt 'right mind, wits', Old Saxon gewit 'understanding', and Gothic un-witi 'foolishness, understanding'). Proto-Germanic * halja-wītjan is reconstructed from Old Norse hel-víti 'hell', Old English helle-wíte 'hell-torment, hell', Old Saxon helli-wīti 'hell', and the Middle High German feminine noun helle-wīze. The second element in the Gothic haliurunnae may however instead be an agent noun from the verb rinnan ("to run, go"), which would make its literal meaning "one who travels to the netherworld". The compound is composed of two elements: * haljō and * rūnō, the Proto-Germanic precursor to Modern English rune.
This form is reconstructed from the Latinized Gothic plural noun * haliurunnae (attested by Jordanes according to philologist Vladimir Orel, meaning ' witches'), Old English helle-rúne ('sorceress, necromancer', according to Orel), and Old High German helli-rūna 'magic'. Related early Germanic terms and concepts include Proto-Germanic * halja-rūnō(n), a feminine compound noun, and * halja-wītjan, a neutral compound noun. Hall and its numerous Germanic cognates derive from Proto-Germanic * hallō 'covered place, hall', from Proto-Indo-European * kol. The term is etymologically related to Modern English hall and therefore also Valhalla, an afterlife 'hall of the slain' in Norse Mythology. In turn, the Proto-Germanic form derives from the o-grade form of the Proto-Indo-European root * kel-, * kol-: 'to cover, conceal, save'. All forms ultimately derive from the reconstructed Proto-Germanic feminine noun * haljō ('concealed place, the underworld'). The word has cognates in all branches of the Germanic languages, including Old English hell (and thus Modern English hell), Old Frisian helle, Old Saxon hellia, Old High German hella, and Gothic ?????. The Old Norse feminine proper noun Hel is identical to the name of the entity that presides over the realm, Old Norse Hel.